In a typical plant for preparing chickens for human consumption, the chickens are supported by their legs in shackles on two automated lines which are typically contained in two separate rooms. The first line, known as the “kill line”, is where the chickens are slaughtered and defeathered. The second line, known as the “evisceration line”, is where evisceration (organ removal) and inspection are performed. Evisceration involves removal of the internal organs as a “viscera pack”, which travels along with the eviscerated carcass through one or more inspection areas. Both the eviscerated carcass and the viscera pack are subjected to at least one inspection to ensure they meet government standards.
Typically, the leg shackles on the evisceration line cannot handle carcasses with feet attached. Therefore, the feet are cut off at the shank immediately prior to the transfer point between the kill line and the evisceration line. The chicken feet remain on the kill line shackles while the remainder of the carcass is transferred, either manually or by machine, to leg shackles on the evisceration line. The feet are subsequently removed from the kill line shackles for disposal or for sale.
Because the feet are separated from the chicken carcasses prior to inspection, the feet removed from the kill line will include feet belonging to birds which are eventually rejected during the inspection process. For this reason, many jurisdictions consider such chicken feet (also referred to herein as “paws”) inedible. Currently, the number of jurisdictions prohibiting the sale of “inedible” chicken paws is increasing, resulting in an unsatisfied demand for chicken paws amongst consumers as well as the paws being discarded as waste by chicken processors.
Currently known methods for ensuring that chicken paws are of edible quality yield generally unsatisfactory results. One solution is a batch process in which the feet of a specific group of birds are held back until the carcasses of the birds pass through the inspection process. If all the carcasses in the group pass the inspections, then the feet are considered edible as well. However, even with a low rejection rate, this method is inefficient since it produces low yields of edible chicken paws, and requires additional storage space in which batches of chicken paws can be held.
Therefore, in order to supply saleable chicken paws and to avoid costs associated with disposing of inedible chicken paws, it is desirable to provide a more efficient method by which the feet of rejected birds are reliably discarded to ensure that the chicken paws can be certified as edible product.